Thousands of Soviet Jews celebrated the Succoth and Simhat Torah holidays last week in full view of agents of the KGB. The Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry has learned that 20,000 Jews sang and danced in joyous celebration of Simhat Torah in front of the Moscow Synagogue.
Meanwhile, 2000 others celebrated the holiday in front of the Riga Synagogue and 30 key activists in the provincial capital of Kishinev gathered for holiday festivities in a private apartment. Earlier, over 70 Moscow activists celebrated Succoth in a succoth they had erected outside the Soviet capital.
Bronx Borough President Robert Abrams, conference chairman, praised “the bravery of these Jewish heroes who courageously manifested their love of Torah and Judaism in the face of government threats. These activists are only the tip of the iceberg, representing the hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews whose love of Judaism has survived the calculated plan by the Soviet government to erase Jewish life.”
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